The Golf Chronicles. A Rule that Riled The death of a 400-year-old nuisance. Byron Nelson RCC Pro

Transcription

1 A Dead Stymie. A golfer attempts to chip his ball over the ball blocking his path to the hole; 17th green at North Berwick, Scotland, c1888. Ancient and ridiculous. The Toronto World, in this article from June 6, 1917, makes clear its disdain for the stymie rule. A Rule that Riled The death of a 400-year-old nuisance Today s golf biz buzz is all about rules. What should be a simple set of rules had become a voluminous nightmare, with rules decisions played out for all to see in real time at golf s marque events. After a summer of discontent, the games rules makers decided that enough was enough. And now, something strange has happened. Common sense has reared its all-to-infrequently-seen head. A sweeping revision to the game s rules will welcome the new year in 2019 and today s headscratchers will be kicked to the curb. That events moved quickly is a tribute to the people in charge who realized that very few golfers are prone to giving their ball a little nudge when nobody is looking. With that as background, perhaps a little controversy from time to time is a good thing. Would anybody care about the rules of golf if Dustin hadn t done what he didn t do at the 16 U.S. Open? Dustin s dust-up raged for a few days. Golfers and non-golfers alike were riveted to the story, and why not? What s not to like about a bunch of guys in blazers analyzing video frame by frame to determine if a golf ball moved a titch and why. But when it comes to a rules controversy, this was a piker. Who doesn t love a rules controversy that raged for decades? Centuries, even. Such was the debate over golf s stymie rule. When I first typed the previous sentence, I made an error on the word rule, typing instead rile. I think rile is accurate, because the stymie rule certainly riled the singular world of golf s rules makers. The stymie rule ruled golf and riled golfers for centuries. The March 11, 1918, article on page 2 reports that the stymie was added to the rules in It also notes that prior to 1889 the order of play on each hole was decided by a coin toss, not the previous hole s score. Nothing to do with the stymie, but interesting. A golfer s lament that a competitor Laid me a dead stymie has no meaning and probably no understanding in today s game. Trenham s Treasure. I got to thinking about the stymie rule a rule I have never played after reading an article posted to Pete Trenham s golf history web site, Pete has been a PGA pro for more than 50 years, including 10 at RCC, and one of Philadelphia s most accomplished golfers. He is also a respected historian of the sport. His writing about the game, which appears on his web site, has earned him considerable acclaim. Today, a player marks his or her ball on the green and fellow competitors putt with an unimpeded route to the hole. Play was not always so. When the stymie was allowed by the rules of golf, a player could use his or her ball to block another player s path to the hole. The stymie was for match play and only in singles or in alternate stroke competition. And why did it exist? The stymie was born of the Scottish conviction that the ball should be played as it lies from tee to hole. It s a funny word, stymie. Collins Online Dictionary states that its origin may be from the same Scottish word, meaning a person who sees poorly. Collins cites the word s first use for golf in 1857 and its use in the general sense to block, hinder or thwart in Golfers who played in the stymie era probably didn't give two figs about the word s origin. They had to learn how to putt around or hit over the opponent s ball. Here is a good example on YouTube from Paul Runyan, who was laid a dead stymie by Sam Snead in the finals of the 1938 PGA Championship at Shawnee on the Delaware. The action occurs about 20 seconds into the newsreel clip. Oh, and the term, laid a dead stymie? It has noting to do with necrophilia. Players from the stymie era were fond of applying that description to their handiwork.

2 Defeating the stymie. Detail from a photo that appeared in a 1913 instruction book shows Jerome Travers preparing to chip his stymied ball over the stymie his opponent laid for him. Travers was one of the leading amateur golfers of the early 20th century. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1907, 08, 12 and 13, and the 15 U.S. Open. Milwaukee Sentinel, March 11, This article not only dates the stymie rule, it describes a rather curious means for determining who has the honor on the tee. Back to Pete Trenham. Pete posted an article in March 2015 about the stymie rule and the role of a prominent Philadelphia-area professional in keeping the rule on in place for 30 years. According to Pete, the stymie rule was established in Scotland for 300 years. In the 1800s the rule was revised to state that the stymie was only for match play when there was just one ball in play for each side. Here s the stymie rule: During a match-play event, the two golf balls on the green had to remain in place unless they lay within six inches of each other. The golfer who was away had to play around or over the other ball. If the stymied player s putted ball moved the opponent s ball, the player could replace it or play from its new position. If the opponent s ball went in the hole, the player was deemed to have holed out with his previous stroke. Unfair, say some. Many golfers were of the opinion that the rule was unfair and a matter of luck. Many but not all. In 1920 the USGA softened the rule a bit. With the new version the golfer who was stymied could concede the next stroke to an opponent who had laid the stymie. Thus, if an opponent s ball was close to the hole it might be best to concede the next stroke rather than be stymied. Pete reports that the Western Golf Association abandoned the stymie rule altogether in This followed their 1917 rule change that required the player nearer the hole to putt first, a rule first used in the Western Amateur. The rule was abandoned before the final matches were played because of player protests. The revision allowed the player nearer the hole to mark his ball or play. In 1921, the president of the United States Golf Association, Howard Whitney, met with Joe Kirkwood, Sr., who was the greatest trick shot artist of his time. Kirkwood was a long-time resident of Glenside, Pa. and the professional at the Huntingdon Valley Country Club from 1938 to Whitney watched Kirkwood demonstrate the art of negotiating a stymie. Upon witnessing that exhibition, Whitney decided that the stymie was an important part of golf. The stymie bounces back. Meeting at Pine Valley Golf Club in April 1922, the United States Golf Association returned the stymie to the rules of golf as it was before The USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the sport s foremost rulesmakers, were once again in complete agreement on the rule. In 1938, the USGA modified the stymie rule again. If the obstructing ball lay within six inches of the hole the stymied golfer could ask to have the ball marked. To assist in measuring stymies, most scorecards were six inches long. During all of these changes by the USGA and other golf associations the R&A never altered its interpretation of the rule. The dead stymie dies. In 1944 the PGA of America stopped using the stymie in its championship, a match play event, and many other golf organizations were simply ignoring the rule. In 1952, after centuries of use and 30 years after Kirkwood had influenced its continued life in the USA, the stymie was removed from the rules of golf. The dead stymie was dead. 2

3 Deseret News, January 27, 1921 The stymie rule is long gone and little remembered. Which is a shame, because it played a significant role in the days when the head-to-head competition of match play ruled the links. Here are two examples from an uncredited 1960 United Press International article. This is most interesting because it connects the stymie to Bobby Jones Grand Slam in 1930 and s victory in the 1940 PGA Championship. Tolley s woe. The article is on page 12. In it, Jones speaks kindly about the stymie rule and explains how it helped him win the British Amateur in 1930 at The Old Course in St. Andrews. On the first extra hole of fourth-round play, Jones laid a stymie against Cyril Tolley, the defending champion, to close out the match. Tolley had played a poor third shot, leaving him vulnerable to a stymie. Said Jones, I made a very careful putt. It stopped short of the hole but shut Tolley off. Jones won the championship by defeating the Englishman Roger Wethered, 8 and 7. This was Jones only British amateur victory. Were it not for that stymie, Jones may have fallen one win short of achieving golf s only Grand Slam. The article also credits s 1-up defeat of Sam Snead in the 1940 PGA Championship played at Hershey Country Club to the two stymies laid by Lord Byron against the Slammer. The photo in the upper right shows Nelson holding the 1940 PGA trophy. Wouldn t it be great fun to reinstate the stymie rule for just one day? Sure, it would. In print. Several articles from an online search of the stymie rule debate are on the following pages. Among the highlights: An article from 1922 that describes the complexities faced by the day s rules-making authorities, page 4. In two 1937 columns, Bill Reedy, the Reading Eagle s greatest sports writer and editor, commented on the Berks Golf Association s position on the stymie rule. In that year s Berks Amateur Championship, Bob Dinsmore, playing on his home Berkshire C.C. course, defeated RCC s Billy Eban in the 36-hole final, 2 & 1. Dinsmore s win was his third in the first nine Berks Amateur championships. In a follow-up column, Reedy described how Dinsmore profited from stymies, page 6. The Scottish view on the stymie is presented in this gem of an article from 1938 printed in the Glasgow Herald, page 8. A 1944 article headlined, Nertz to Stymie Rule, Says Mr. Nelson, in which stated that...the stymie rule never did me any good. Page 9. Or did it? Page 12. The headline from the Milwaukee Journal, April 22, 1948, sings: Any Golf Rule Will Do but the Stymie Never! Page 9. The United Press, on May 31, 1949, offers hope for relief: 400- year-old Stymie Rule May be Junked Here Soon, page 10. A 1950 article reporting Jimmy Demaret s stymie rule complaints. The article mentions Henry Williams, who was the golf professional at Berkleigh Country Club ( ) and Moselem Springs Golf Club ( ), page 11. From 1952, a report on the end of the stymie, headlined Stymie Rule in Golf Dead Duck as of Today, a fitting epitaph for either a 400-year-old tradition or a centuries' old nuisance, depending on your point of view, page 12. 3

4 Deseret News, January 23,

5 January 20, 1924 The Day New London, Conn. September 22,

6 The Golf Chronicles Reading Eagle August 19 and September 8, 1937 Sarasota Herald-Tribune April 11, 1937 Pittsburgh Press, January 3,

7 Glasgow Herald January 28, 1938 Montreal Gazette January 11,

8 The Golf Chronicles Glasgow Herald March 8,

9 Milwaukee Journal, April 22, 1948 August 15, 1944 Miami News August 18,

10 Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 31,

11 June 29, 1950 September 19,

12 Schenectady Gazette, January 1, 1952 Sunday Herald, Bridgeport, Conn. November 6,